


Spine of Steel

by jupiter23



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Alternate title: Thang actually grows one, F/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:32:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8981974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupiter23/pseuds/jupiter23
Summary: There are some things even Thang can't be talked into doing.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My Secret Santa fic for hannlace on Tumblr! Enjoy, everyone!

It was a beautiful day, Thang noticed as he leisurely made his way back to the Dark Forest’s castle. He hoped he’d get time to enjoy it later. With Princess Marianne having come in from the Fairy Kingdom earlier that day, Thang was pretty sure he just might get that time. His majesty generally didn’t need him for much when the princess was there.

In fact, he only had two other things to do before he was done with his duties for the day. One of them was to bring in the regular reports from the mushrooms. Thang’s hand tightened slightly around the rolled up parchment in his hand. He’d only recently had the idea of writing down the mushrooms’ reports as he heard them. After all, it wasn’t entirely his fault that the messages often made no sense. At least BK seemed appreciative of it, even if the garbled reports still annoyed him.  

Thang walked into the castle. A couple of goblins smiled and waved in greeting at him as they went about their own jobs. Before long, he was rounding the corner to the corridor that would bring him to the king’s study, where Thang knew BK would be at this time of the day.

He was only a few feet from the door and had raised a fisted hand to knock when a sound emanated from the other side of the door. It was a low growl that could have only come from BK himself. It was also a low growl reminiscent of the ones Thang had occasionally heard coming from the king’s bedchamber at night. And only on nights when Princess Marianne was visiting.

Thang’s hand fell to his side. Disturbing a goblin couple while they were mating generally meant a sound ass-kicking for the interrupter. And Thang had no desire to get his own kicked by his majesty. He could deliver his messages later.

He turned to leave only to find Stuff coming down the hall towards him. “Hey, Thang,” she greeted.

“Hey, Stuff,” he returned. “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” he said when he noticed Stuff heading for the door to the study.

“Why not?” But her question was answered when a crash sounded from the other side of the door, followed by a sharp, feminine cry.

Stuff’s eyes widened and she blinked at the door, her hand freezing over the door handle.

“Yeah,” Thang said to her expression. “I’m just gonna come back later.” He turned to leave. But he only made it a few steps before Stuff’s voice stopped him.

“You know,” she said, “it might not be that bad. And really, we won’t be long…”

Thang turned back to her, and looked from her to the door tentatively. “And,” she continued, “if only one of us were to go in there, BK probably won’t get as mad…” she trailed off cajolingly as she sent him a pointed look.

He’d actually taken a couple of steps back towards both Stuff and the door, his mouth open to say something, when another crash erupted from the study. “AAAAAAUUUGGH, _GODS_ , MARIANNE…” BK cried out, and whatever Thang had been about to say died on his lips.

“Uh-uh. I’m not going in there,” Thang said. He turned and began walking back down the hall in the opposite direction from the study.

“Aw, come on, Thang! You’re only dropping that off, and I only have to deliver—“

“You can go in there if you want,” Thang said. He hadn’t stopped walking, and Stuff had run to catch up with him.

“But Griselda said stopping them every now and then—“

“I said _no_!” Thang insisted, stopping and swinging around to face Stuff. She blinked in surprise, but even Thang knew it was more at his outburst than anything. He couldn’t remember _ever_ being so aggressive, not even with Stuff.

And he was instantly sorry he had. He didn’t like being mean to anyone, even though he had a pretty good reason to be.

 “I—I mean, th-this can all wait, can’t it? I mean, it really isn’t all that important and BK can read it later, and—“ He stopped short when he saw Stuff was smiling at him. “…What?”

“I’m proud of you!” she said.

“Huh?” Thang blinked at her stupidly.

“Seriously, I was wondering how long it would take before you finally stopped falling for that,” she said.

Thang only continued to gape at her silently as she turned and continued down the hallway. “Now let’s go for a walk. It’s a really nice day and I don’t want to waste it,” she continued.

Thang blinked twice before he was scrambling to follow her. Dark Forest business could wait.

 

“Bog, _hold still_!” Marianne fussed as she worked her fingers under the heavy bookcase, trying to adjust her grip on it. On the floor next to her, Bog’s hands flopped down to his sides. There was no way he would be able to help her from his awkward position. At least, he wouldn’t be able to until she’d lifted the bookcase enough to free his pinned wing.

Bog snarled in irritation. “Have _you_ ever had a wing get caught in something?” he snapped.

“I have, actually,” she said though her grit teeth as she finally got a good grip on the underside of the bookcase and began to lift. _Gods_ , but it was _freaking heavy_! “And believe me, I know it helps to _not move_!”

Bog glared up at her as he stilled from his struggling once more. “This is your fault, you  know,” he grumbled. “If you hadn’t thrown me into the bloody shelf to begin with—“

“Oh, but who was it that insisted on practicing close-quarter hand-to-hand combat in their _damn study_ of all places?” Marianne shot back.

“Who was it that wanted more practice at close-quarter hand-to-hand combat in the first place?” Bog countered.

“Yeah, well,” Marianne grunted, finally lifting the bookcase up high enough for Bog to pull his wing free, “all of the rooms in this stupid castle, and you had to go and pick this one!”

“It was one of the smallest!” Bog said defensively, sitting up and reaching a hand around to check his wing for damage. Marianne dropped the bookcase back in place and sat down hard, massaging her now-sore hands.

“Alright fine,” Marianne agreed. “But next time, how about we use a room with less furniture?”

Bog’s wing flicked out and gave a tentative buzz. It seemed to be fine, as far as Marianne could tell. “You know, if you were ever attacked in a small room, your opponent isn’t going to—“ But Marianne cut Bog’s lecture off when she crawled over to him and pressed her lips to his.

“Isn’t going to what?” she asked teasingly against his lips when the kiss broke.

“Is—isn’t going to—“ but Marianne cut him off again with another kiss. There were better things to do in this study, after all.


End file.
